At Hillborough Junior School we aspire to embrace and reflect the diversity and positive values of the multi ethnic society within our school curriculum. Children are supported within the classroom and also in additional support groups to help their English language acquisition. As a school, we are also taking part in research around EAL development and language acquisition with The Bell Foundation in order to give our pupils even greater support and our staff more training. Hillborough Junior School celebrates the cultural background of all the children and we encourage them to be proud of and share their heritage. We can learn much from each other.

Each year we hold our annual Diversity Day where children are invited to come to school in national dress, take part in workshops themed around different ideas and cultures, and bring in artefacts and objects from home that have special significance to them, their religion or culture to share in class. This event grows every year.

Support in class

Children with EAL needs will be supported within class as much as possible, in order to give them the opportunities to settle into the class and adjust to the daily routines and expectations. This also allows them to be immersed in the English language and the children will begin to pick up the language very quickly when surrounded by peers. Teaching Assistants and Teachers will support children with additional instructions, differentiated work and by including as many visual prompts as possible to allow the children to access the lesson. Translation services can also be used to enable children to understand the objectives of a lesson.

Support out of class

Some children will need additional support out of class, particularly if they are new arrivals to the country with little English. They will be supported by a designated Teacher or Teaching Assistant and take part in group sessions, games and activities designed to encourage the children to use spoken English as much as possible. They may also do work based on tenses, verbs, plurals etc. We do not assume that children with English as an Additional Language are special needs. Their ability in all subjects will be gauged over time and with support from specialist teachers in order to best support the child and decide on how to move them on.

African Caribbean Achievers Awards

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